Question

A data center automation team wants to manage Nexus 9000 switch configurations using an infrastructure-as-code tool that maintains a declarative state file, calculates the delta between desired and actual configuration, and only pushes the changes needed to reach the desired state. They also want a plan/preview step before any changes are applied to production fabric devices. Which tool and workflow best satisfies these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Terraform with the Cisco NX-OS provider, using 'terraform plan' to preview drift and 'terraform apply' to converge to declared state

Answer

A Bash script invoked through NX-API that reissues the full configuration on every run to guarantee consistency

Answer

An EEM applet that triggers on syslog events and reapplies interface commands locally on the switch

Answer

A Python script using paramiko to SSH into each switch and send CLI commands line by line without state tracking